The Sword

The Sword (Kanji: 剣, Katakana: ソード, Romanji: Sōdo) is one of the fifty-two Clow Cards in the anime and is also part of the original nineteen cards from the manga series. It is under The Firey and under the power of the Sun, Cerberus, and Western Magic.

Personality

The Sword is shown to be very violent. It was first seen possessing Rika Sasaki and even attempting to kill Sakura Kinomoto at first encounter.

Magic and Abilities

Cutting Magic: The Sword is powerful, able to slice down brick walls and other strong materials such as metal. It can also fight the other cards, it was able to cut through Shield and even able to pin Shadow to the ground. The Sword can even cut through the time space warps created by the Loop in Episode 21, thus allowing Sakura to seal Loop. Sword's strength reflects that of its user.

Possession: Sword is shown to be able to possess others when unsealed. It first appeared as a small pin and when worn, will possess it's wearer and use them as a vessel to attack

Fortune Telling: All Clow Cards have the ability to help their user predict the future. Their method of fortune-telling is similar to that of tarot cards. The interpretation of the message the Clow Cards relay depends on the magical power of the user. Sword, in particular, represents a challenge, battle, or test.

Synopsis

Capture

In both the anime (Episode 9) and manga (volume 2), Sword possesses Sakura's friend Rika Sasaki (Rita) and forces her to attack Sakura. In both instances, Sakura is saved by Syaoran and then uses Illusion to distract Rika in order to separate her from Sword. In the English dub, Illusion shows Rika what she feared most at that moment in time, but in the original series, it shows her an image of her true love.

In the second movie, Sakura uses Sword in the beginning of the movie to destroy a gigantic monster created by the Create card in a battle scene for one of Tomoyo's videos. However, it was soon captured by The Nothing and plays no further part in the movie.

Curiously, Syaoran's Jian is able to deflect several blows from Sword with relative ease. Presumably, it's magical nature protects it from damage.

Transformation

Sword is transformed into a Sakura Card in Episode 50 of the anime/Volume 7 (Chapter 30) of the manga when Syaoran is bound by strange threads. Sakura uses Sword to release Syaoran from his prison. In a later episode, Sakura finds the need to fight with both Sword and Fly, but she was limited in that both cards involved the sealing wand and could not be used together. This prompts Sakura to transform Fly, merging with it, so that the wand is left free to turn into Sword.

Trivia

The Sword may also be reference to the Divine Swords in the CLAMP manga series, X/1999. The Sword bares a resemblance to one of them, and that at least one was wrapped in chains.

Sword being wrapped in chains may be related to its violent nature.

The Sword is one of the only two cards that required transforming the Sealing Wand to perform it's summoned task.

The kanji at the top of the card: 剣, (Pronounced 'Ken') can mean 'sabre', 'sword' or 'blade' in Japanese.